Guest post: Inconsequential lyrics
In today's guest post, Richard discusses the idiocy of certain song lyrics about his hometown.
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Q: What did you tell me your opinion is about that "Chicago" song by Frank Sinatra?
A: Actually, there are two Chicago songs that were performed by Frank Sinatra, "My Kind Of Town" and "Chicago (That Toddling Town)".
Neither song really addresses any way in which Chicago is unique. The songs are more like templates (or Mad-Libs) where the writer can insert a city name repeatedly and then three gratuitous references to that city. In "My Kind of Town" the three noun phrases are "jazz," "The Wrigley Building," and "Chicago Cubbies," and it's the next-to-last paragraph before the first of them is even mentioned.
And each time I leave, Chicago is
Tuggin' my sleeve, Chicago is
The Wrigley Building, Chicago is
The Chicago Cubbies, Chicago is
One town that won't let you down
It's my kind of town
It reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Lisa goes to college and winds up at a campus poetry reading. The poet guy warms up the crowd by mentioning a few dormitory names, and the students proceed to go nuts when their dorm is mentioned. "Hey, did you hear that?! He said my dorm! Say another building!!"
That's what those two songs seem like: inconsequential sound bites spoon-fed to Chicagoans hungering to feel important and not just residents of "The Second City." Or perhaps they're just the work of a lyricist with the back of an envelope and some time to kill.
In summary, "toddling" is a stupid, stupid word.
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